The Arkansas Tech Golden Suns announced their 34-game 2012 schedule Friday, and the only thing left to do now is to get to preseason camp begin work defending their Great American Conference regular-season and conference championships.

Head Coach Kristy Bayer, entering her ninth season at ATU, said she is excited about the schedule, which includes the annual Spikefest Tournament at Tucker Coliseum in early September and playing four teams that advanced to the NCAA D-II Tournament last season ago.

“We were able to get a good mix of non-conference opponents to play us,” Bayer said. “If we want to give ourselves a chance to return to the NCAA Tournament this season, we needed to play some quality non-conference opposition. We have gone out and scheduled that competition.”

The Golden Suns, who return four starters and nine letterwinners from last season’s 35-4 squad that advanced to the NCAA D-II South Central Regional for the second time in school history, will play 15 of their 34 matches inside the friendly confines of Tucker Coliseum, where ATU has won 25 straight matches dating back to the 2010 season. The Suns finished 18-0 at home last year and are 62-6 during the past four seasons.

“Winning at home has become a priority for our team and our program,” Bayer said. “This coming season we were once again fortunate enough to attract several good teams to play us at home, plus we have six quality home GAC matches.”

Tech will open its 2012 season by playing four matches in two days at the Christian Brothers Invitational in Memphis, Tenn., on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 — against Lincoln Memorial and Tiffin, a DII regional team from a year ago. The Suns will then play West Georgia and Christian Brothers. The Lady Bucs finished 24-11 in 2011 and also advanced to the NCAA D-II South Regional.

Tech will open the home portion of its schedule with the annual Hampton Inn Spikefest Tournament on Sept. 7-8. The Suns will face Lindenwood and Arkansas-Monticello on day one, then McKendree and Central Oklahoma.

“Our preseason schedule is packed with some very good regional competition. It will be important for us to be sharp at the beginning of the year, because any missteps could have consequences at the end of the year in the regional rankings,” said Bayer, who is the winningest volleyball coach in school history with 201 all-time victories.

Tech will face Drury at Harding University in Searcy at 3 p.m. Sept. 9. The Suns will play their first of 13 GAC matches at Arkansas-Monticello on Sept. 11, then to Dallas Baptist on Sept. 14 and Philander Smith in Little Rock on Sept. 15.

Arkansas Tech will then head to Harding on Sept. 18, host Henderson State on Sept. 20 and Ouachita Baptist on Sept. 25, then travel to Southeastern Oklahoma State on Sept. 28 and East Central on Sept. 29.

After two home matches against Philander Smith and Williams Baptist on Oct. 1, the Suns will embark on a four-game road trip in Missouri. Tech will face Pittsburg State and Central Missouri on the first day of the Peggy Martin Challenge in Warrensburg on Oct. 5. UCM finished 30-5 record and lost to eventual D-II national champion Concordia-St. Paul in the national quarterfinals. On Oct. 6, Tech will travel to Bolivar, Mo., to face Lindenwood and Nebraska-Kearney at 1:30 p.m. UNK returns all six of its starters from last season’s 32-2 squad that finished ranked ninth in the final AVCA DII Coaches’ Poll.

“Playing Central Missouri and Nebraska-Kearney will pose a challenge to our team, but it is a challenge we’re looking forward to,” Bayer added. “Those two programs are two of the top volleyball programs in our region and also in Division II.”

Tech will welcome new GAC member Southern Nazarene on Oct. 12, play at Southern Arkansas on Oct. 16 and close out the month with five straight home matches — Northwestern Oklahoma State on Oct. 19, UAM on Oct. 23, Central Baptist and Lyon College on Oct. 25 and Harding on Oct. 30.

Tech will conclude the regular season with matches on Nov. 3 at Southwestern Oklahoma State and on Nov. 6 at Henderson State, before hosting Southern Arkansas on Nov. 8 for Senior Night at Tucker Coliseum.

The 2012 GAC Volleyball season will conclude on Nov. 15-17 as eight teams will qualify for the postseason tournament, which will take place on the home court of the regular-season champion. Southern Nazarene and Northwestern Oklahoma State are not eligible to qualify for the GAC Tournament.